Development of phenothiazine-based fluorescent probe with aggregation induced emission (AIE) for detection of hydrazine and its application in imaging of living cells

A new fluorescent probe CMPA based on phenothiazine for detection of hydrazine was designed and synthesized. The probe employed methyl cyanoacetate as the recognition group and phenothiazine as the fluorescent chromophore. The Stoke shift and the detection limit of the probe CMPA at the presence of hydrazine reached to 100 nm and 5.2 ppb respectively. In addition, the probe CMPA dyed the HepG2 cells with violet colour at the presence of hydrazine.